Patient Engagement Model: Enhancing Patient Care & Revenue Through IT

Notwithstanding best quality of medical care offered by individual physicians, clinics, hospitals, and multispecialty groups across the US, there has been an interesting debate – how to leverage digital technology in pushing the prevailing medical care standard to the next rung while also optimizing revenue in the process. Whereas Patient Engagement Model is not a novel entity, yet, given its compatibility with Digital Technology, it assumes greater significance than ever before. In fact, the report released by a consortium of health IT experts affiliated to the Institute for Health Technology Transformation vindicates the importance of technology-driven business model for patient engagement, which also works to enhance your revenue returns.

Increasing patient volume through enhanced engagement
Calling for research and collaborations among industry stakeholders, the report is optimistic of a turnaround in quality, safety and efficiency of medical care should healthcare providers realize efficacy of Patient Engagement through Digital Technology Tools. Providing a broader guideline for implementation, the white paper (published by the consortium) has also spelt out ways to engage patients for seamless medical efficiency. Thus, gone are the days when your medical competence alone could attract, retain, and swell your patient base. In a highly technology-enabled modern healthcare industry, you are equally vulnerable to lose your patient-base to your competitors, who – not withstanding their equally competent medical knowledge – may have a better Patient Engagement Model in place. Therefore, it is advisable that individual physicians, clinics, hospitals, and multispecialty groups alike adopt the guidelines – issued by the experts at the Institute for Health Technology Transformation – as the commandments for IT-enabled Patient Engagement Model.

Complementing your patients’ healthcare-related information needs with customized delivery through various IT Media channels: although patients themselves derive health-related information for better management of their diagnosis and treatment, yet channelizing information – through online health tools, such as reminders, instructions and educational information about their diagnosis and treatments – from your end can be more apt and assuring. And satisfied patients translate into enhanced reputation and increasing patient volume.

While there can be no substitute for your medical competence, yet enabling a dialogue across your patient-base is seen as promoter of transparency, and goodwill amongst your patients. Social Media tools – Facebook, Healthgrades, ICYou, Patientslikeme and Twitter – are ideally suited for ensuring a networked dialogue.

Whereas targeting young patient-base – who are generally tech-savvy – assumes greater significance, there is an interesting phenomenon that elderly group and their well-wishers are equally fascinated with the web medium. This can provide interesting opportunities for physicians to include their patients from all age groups in meaningful online interaction. Therefore, there is a balancing act to be done that can go a long way to increase your patient base.

In an environment, where patients believe your advice to be authenticated, physicians and hospitals can leverage that trust by ensuring their patients with factual report on their personal health information, generated and delivered through networked systems.

As your patient-base tends to be highly mobile, you need to find a delivery mode that best suits your patients who are always on the move. The new age smart-phones, and tablet androids – which are capable of replicating computer-aided features – are made for the situation.

Although IT-enabled information channels can take your Patient Engagement Program to a new level, there is always an element of security threat as the sensitive health information is prone to undesirable proliferation over the web or wireless medium. Therefore, system security tools need to be in place for mitigating such scenario.

Contrary to the general conception of technology being expensive, IT-enabled Patient Engagement Program can be implemented at no cost at all through free social media tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Although your Patient Engagement Program may not show tangible benefits directly like dramatic increase in your Rate of Return on your Investment (ROI), yet, being a quality measure at increasing medical care efficiency, it is bound to yield goodwill to practice or institution, which is invaluable.

Judging by its inherent potential, IT-enabled Patient Engagement Model should never be an option but an opportunity for individual physicians, clinics, hospitals, and multi-specialty groups to provide meaningful and enhanced patient care. While they can be adopted freely, healthcare providers can tackle that burden by subscribing to the consultancy services from a credible source such as Medicalbillersandcoders.com for implementing medical management systems. While the government incentives can hugely subsidize the financial investments involved in the implementation of these processes, the consultancy services offered by Medicalbillersandcoders can easily streamline the implementation process as well as staff training involved in it.